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Audi A3 Sportback: The defective cable
The eight-year-old Audi A3 Sportback quattro didn't make any noise, but the check engine light lighting up signaled a problem. To be on the safe side, his owner took him to the workshop - and thus provided the material for a new diagnostic crime story.
Audi A3 Sportback: The defective cable
With 125,000 kilometers on the clock, the regularly serviced Audi A3 Sportback quattro was just in its prime when its check engine light came on, indicating an internal problem. Its owner, who mainly uses the compact car privately on motorways and country roads as well as in the city, went to Georg Ringseis' workshop in Vienna-Landstrasse, which specializes in car electrics, in order to have the error corrected before it could potentially lead to major damage. But what initially looked like a walk for the expert ultimately turned out to be a strenuous mountain tour with several stages:
▶ Reading the error memory indicates a full diesel particulate filter; a regeneration drive is recommended and carried out. Conclusion: The indicator light goes out, the problem seems to have been solved for the time being. Ringseis recommends that the customer use a fuel additive to clean the inside of the engine to remove any deposits that may be present.
▶ Around four weeks later, the customer knocks on the workshop again - the indicator light lights up again. This time the analysis shows that the differential pressure sensor reports a full particle filter, even though it was only recently regenerated. A defect in the sensor is suspected and it is therefore replaced. Conclusion: Problem solved – but only apparently.
▶ Fourteen days later, the A3 drives up again with the warning signal flashing. This time the specialist reached for harder bandages and subjected the particle filter to intensive chemical cleaning followed by a regeneration drive. The preliminary success proves him right.
▶ A few days later, the customer barely made it to the workshop with her A3, whose engine control unit had now switched to emergency mode. The expert is at a loss and asks the manufacturer directly, who advises him to update the software. No sooner said than done, and again the customer drives home with her supposedly intact A3 - only to show up again two weeks later with the same problem - for the 5th time!
▶ According to the repair instructions, the particle filter would now have to be replaced, which would cost the customer over 3000 euros. Ringseis wants to save her this and tries replacing the cables between the engine control unit and the differential pressure sensor - to the relief of his customer, the right decision. Ringseis: “It’s been quiet since then!”